Who needs home invaders, if I thought I had to live like the post above I would just shoot myself and be done with it.

It's not a matter of "living like that"... it's a matter of knowing how to reduce your odds of being victimized.

One of the recent scams here had teams of thieves quietly cruising neighborhoods on "trash night", looking for empty boxes for computers, TVs, Stereos and other valuables. They weren't so crass as to stop and inspect either. They used a low-light digital camera and noted the address, then kept a database of homes to hit.

Lots of burglaries occur after workmen act as eyes for thieves or pose as garage sale 'customers' who ask to borrow your bathroom.